Design Formulas for the Groups of Six Cylindrical Silos Due to Interstice Loadings

Different and huge amounts of granular materials can be stored in and between the cells of the grouped reinforced concrete cylindrical silos. The determination of design forces acting on these grouped silos requires significant computational effort due to structural continuity and the force transfer between the adjacent silos. In this conjunction, the present study carried out a series of two-dimensional linear elastic analyses for various groups of six cylindrical silos to examine their behaviors against interstice loadings. A detailed parametric study was performed by varying the silo-wall thickness, intersection wall thickness and the intersection wall lengths of the groups of six cylindrical silos in order to confirm their effectiveness on the resultant design forces. Bending moments, hoop forces and shear forces occurring at the interstice walls due to interstice loadings were computed with finite element analyses. Based on the results of the present numerical analyses, the design formulas were introduced and the design coefficients were proposed to compute the design forces without necessitating any finite element analyses.